New breed of artists take on circus tricks

The modern day circus performer spends long hours training to hone their unique skills. NICA, Australia's only institution to offer a bachelor degree in Circus Arts hold auditions each year to look for up and coming talent. (NICA:David Wyatt)

Blood, sweat and tears. Gone are the days where the circus rolling into town means lions, elephants and the ring master.

Today the modern-day circus performer is one that will dangle dangerously from thin ropes suspended metres from the ground; prance precariously along tightropes while juggling fireballs; or fly across the room flipping from trapeze to trapeze, all while wearing larger-than-life costumes and make-up.

But to get anywhere close to the dizzying heights of well-known shows on the world stage, they need to cut their teeth at Australia's training ground National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA).

NICA, which offer Australia's only bachelor degree in circus arts, hold auditions each year, offering inspiring street performers, gymnasts and dancers the chance to show they've got what it takes to make it.

But the process can be gruelling.

Teagan Carmichael of NICA says auditions in Brisbane this week attracted people from across Queensland and overseas.

"It's very exciting to see all the hopeful students coming up through circus arts.

"The audition panel are looking for potential; we're an educational school so we're looking to teach people to become circus performers, we're not looking for people who already are circus performers."

Teagan knows the audition process well from both sides. This is her second year assessing new students for the course, but around 10 years ago it was Teagan who was trying to impress.

"I first auditioned in 2002 at NICA. I did my three-year course and then began teaching.

"Now we get elite athletes from swimming, soccer, dance, gymnastics, martial arts," she says, "but the great thing about circus is that it plays to your strengths and hides your weaknesses."

Hear what people had to say about the audition process to get into NICA by clicking on the audio at the right.

Daring to dream

The explosion of contemporary circus shows like Circus Oz and the worldly popular Cirque de Soleil has revived a hunger from both audiences and performers to witness mind-boggling, awe-inspiring tricks, each more spectacular than the last.

Ryan Darwin, a Canadian-born, New Zealand-raised street performer, spends his days playing larger-than-life character to the tourists that flock to Auckland's Queen Street, but has taken a couple of days out to throw his juggler's hat in the ring for a place at NICA.

"Juggling is my main skill, [but] I do balance board work, basic acrobatics and try and be funny in general!

"I started in Canada on a hippy island after I saw someone at my school tossing a club up and down, so I went home and got some tomatoes out of my mum's kitchen and started juggling," he laughs, "but that didn't work, so I got some juggling balls."

After 10 years of teaching himself the performance arts, he now thinks a formal education could give him some direction in a very competitive environment.

"To be amongst other incredible athletes and well-known coaches would be very exciting, you can learn so much from other people.

"You've got one day here and you've got to let it all go basically, just leave everything behind," he says. "There's a lot of talented people here, who're all a bit younger than me...it pushes me to do more."

He says after a decade performing he's finally made a proper living from his work for the first time, but he's not done chasing bigger dreams.

"I think a big part of any circus people's dreams is to be in a big troupe or a very renowned group like Cirque de Soleil. But in the end it's about improving yourself one way or another, and you've got to give something back to people so you can inspire the next generation."

Learning new tricks

From Cirque du Soleil to The Lion King, if you have seen an Australian working on the professional stage anywhere in the world, chances are they've been put through their paces at circus school.

Meredith Kitchen takes students through movement studies at NICA.

She says the national circus school looks to encourage people from different backgrounds to get enticed by the lure of the modern-day circus, and each year the popularity is growing.

"I think there are more and more people now, considering our small population, that are getting out there doing circus.

"Some people have a gymnastics background, some people have dance background," she says, "but we're looking for potential to cultivate circus performers."

The audition process can be gruelling for some, but Meredith says it gives the artists a chance to show their range.

"We start the day with a performance movement workshop; then comes all the physical testing which is quite specific; and then they each have to present an individual performance.

"We're not necessarily looking for high skills; we're looking for their performance quality."

And if they can crack it at the auditions, it could be their ticket to the world stage.

"People that graduate from NICA will go off and do a myriad of things. Some will start their companies and do their own work and there are others who will go off and join a troupe like Cirque du Solei - the very top-end athletes."

Coming from a dance background herself, Meredith says that the joy of watching circus performers is in how they play to the audience.

"A dancer tries to do [something] difficult and [they] try and make it look easy, and sometimes a circus performer will do something that isn't that difficult, but they'll make it look as difficult as possible."